[GAIUS libro tertio de manumissionibus. ] §40.4.57.prSi locuples egenti heres exstiterit, uideamus, an ea res testamento datis libertatibus proficiat, ut creditores fraudari non uideantur.
[GAIUS in the third book on Manumissions.] If a wealthy person has become the heir to an impoverished deceased, let us see whether this fact benefits the freedoms granted by the will, so that the creditors may not appear to be defrauded.
et sane sunt quidam, qui, cum heres locuples existeret, tale esse crediderunt, quale, si ipse testator adauctis postea facultatibus decessisset.
And indeed, there are some who believed that, when a wealthy heir existed, the situation was such as if the testator himself had died after his resources had subsequently increased.
sed mihi traditum est hoc iure nos uti, ut ad rem non pertineat, locuples an egens heres extiterat, sed quarum facultatium testator decesserit.
But it has been handed down to me that the law we use is this: that it does not matter whether the heir was wealthy or impoverished, but with what resources the testator died.
quam sententiam Iulianus adeo sequitur, ut existimet ne eum quidem libertatem consecuturum, quem is, qui soluendo non esset, ita liberum esse iussisset: 'cum aes alienum solutum erit, Stichus liber esto'. sed non hoc consequens Sabini et Cassii sententiae, quam et ipse sequi uidetur, qui existimant consilium quemque manumittentis spectare debere: nam qui sub ea condicione seruum suum liberum esse iubet, adeo sine fraudis consilio liberum esse iubet, ut apertissime curare uideatur, ne creditores sui fraudentur.
Julian follows this opinion to such an extent that he thinks not even he will obtain freedom whom a person who was insolvent had ordered to be free in this manner: 'When the debt has been paid, let Stichus be free.' But this is not consistent with the opinion of Sabinus and Cassius, whom Julian himself also seems to follow, who think that one ought to look to the intention of each manumitter; for he who orders his slave to be free under that condition orders him to be free so entirely without an intention to defraud that he appears most clearly to take care that his creditors should not be defrauded.